H.R. 6419 — New Essential Education Discoveries Act of 2025

This section (1) adds the National Center for Advanced Development in Education to the list of centers comprising the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, (2) defines "science of learning and development" as the body of peer-reviewed knowledge from various fields on how students best learn and develop, and (3) establishes the National Center for Advanced Development in Education (Advanced Development Center) within IES, headed by a Commissioner for Advanced Education Development. (As background, IES conducts and supports education research, statistics, evaluation, and dissemination to inform federal, state, and local policy and practice.) The center's mission is to identify, develop, and promote advances in teaching and learning—emphasizing breakthrough technologies, new pedagogical approaches, innovative models, reliable assessments, and community-informed solutions to address achievement and opportunity disparities—across early childhood through adult education, special education, and services for English learners; support student relationships and skill-building; improve access to diverse teachers and reduce institutional barriers; and investigate technologies such as speech analysis for disorders and tools for out-of-school skill-building. The center's duties include collecting, analyzing, and disseminating data on transforming U.S. education; approving and terminating projects; setting priorities such as interventions for learning acceleration (especially for students below proficient on state math/reading assessments under ESEA §1111(b)(2)), pedagogy, and various assessments; supporting scientific discoveries for teaching and learning; evaluating and disseminating results; and convening an advisory panel. The Commissioner must submit a research plan to the IES Director within six months of enactment and every three years thereafter, consistent with IES and center missions and using IES's performance management system; may establish training and fellowship programs for education agency employees; and may award grants, cash prizes, contracts, and cooperative agreements to public and private entities to build research collaborations among stakeholders with education expertise.

This section revises the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Program (SLDS) under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9607). (As background, the SLDS program supports states in building secure data systems that link individual student records across early childhood, K-12, postsecondary education, and workforce programs to inform education policy, measure outcomes, and close achievement gaps.) The revision authorizes competitive grants to eligible agencies (i.e., state educational agencies, state workforce agencies, etc.) for up to 4 years (renewable for one additional 2-year period upon demonstrated progress) to design, develop, implement, and improve SLDS that integrate, to the greatest extent practicable, data from early childhood education, elementary/secondary education, career/technical education, postsecondary education, adult education/workforce programs, unemployment insurance/wage records, and Bureau of Indian Education programs (and potentially other sources); reserves up to 10% of funds for planning grants of up to 18 months to support data integration, standards alignment, tools development, and infrastructure upgrades (with stakeholder engagement); and requires applications to describe privacy/security protocols compliant with federal/state laws (including FERPA), public disaggregation of data by student subgroups (as defined in ESEA section 1111(c)(2)), technical data quality, user tools for educators/policymakers/families, research access, and alignment with federal data standards (e.g., FITARA).